Sony Brings the Bling with Swarovski Photoframe

Tag Archive: Queen

Van Halen Might As Well Jump into Guitar Hero

Van Halen Might As Well Jump into Guitar Hero

News dribblets about Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise are falling with the regularity of a broken faucet: first the company announces three new games—including DJ Hero—then casually mentions it’s looking into developing a Guitar Hero reality television series or concert tour package. Now, Activision has more-or-less confirmed what most people in the gaming industry knew already: following on the heels of Guitar Hero: Metallica, Activision is working on Guitar Hero: Van Halen.

Van Halen was, of course, one of the largest arena rock and FM radio acts of the 1980’s, and (despite a long period of inactivity and ongoing personnel shifts) has maintained considerable popularity, most recently demonstrated by a 2008 concert tour with flamboyant frontman David Lee Roth again at center stage.

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What Gifts Did Obama Bring To England?

What Gifts Did Obama Bring To England?

Whatever your views on President Obama, you can’t say he doesn’t use technology. On his visit to London for the gigantic G20 Summit, he brought modern gifts for the Prime Minister and the Queen.

Although his present for Prime Minister Gordon Brown was perhaps dubious – a collection of great American movies that might not actually play without a multi-region DVD player – he scored a hit with the Queen.

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Cyberspace Pioneer Honored

Well before the creation of the world wide web, there was the "open hypermedia system" Microcosm, put together at the University of Southampton in the UK by Wendy Hall – then just 32 – and her colleagues in 1984.

Just 10 years later she became the first female professor of engineering at the university, and in 2000 she was made a CBE for her services to science and technology.  Read more...

UK iTunes Censors Titles

UK iTunes Censors Titles

Hot, or H*t? If you were on the UK iTunes site at the right time last week, you’d have wondered what was so bad about the word hot that it needed to be censored. Or what poor old Johnny Cash had done to become J****y Cash.

An Apple spokesman told the BBC there had been a “database glitch,” which happened when iTunes check for explicit references, and that he had no idea why the software had picked on innocent words, but there was nothing intentional in the “censorship.”

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Napster Takes a Chance on ABBA MP3s

If you just had to run out to see the film version of the musical Mamma Mia!—or, perhaps, got dragged there against your will—online music service Napster hopes you were sufficiently swayed by the the Swedish disco-pop of 70s supergroup ABBA that you’ll want to own their signature tunes for yourself. In fact, why stop with just the well-known hits like “Waterloo,” “Dancing Queen,” and “Take a Chance on Me?” Napster is offering the entire ABBA catalog in DRM-free MP3 format that’ll work on everything from iPods to Zunes to computers to phones!

It’s OK. We know. Take a moment to catch your breath.  Read more...

Bill Gates? Is Gone: What Comes Next?

Bill was and is unique in this industry and changed a lot over the course of time he ran Microsoft. He started out as one of the barbarians challenging the hated status quo and eventually became a part of the new hated status quo for the following generation. He, and Microsoft, provide a cautionary tale for Google in that just as Google has positioned itself with its “do no evil” model as the anti-Microsoft, Microsoft positioned itself as the anti-IBM and eventually became much of what it didn’t like as it aged.  Read more...

The Queen Joins YouTube

The Queen Joins YouTubeSearch around on YouTube and you’ll see something new – The Royal Channel, which was launched(without a trumpet fanfare) yesterday.   Yes, the Queen has finally caught up with technology, not a bad leap from someone who only got her first PC two years ago. To be fair, she’s hardlydone the work herself, since there are undoubtedly royal IT people among the court flunkeys these days. She was persuaded to launch a YouTube channel by her granddaughters, Princesses Eugenia andBeatrice, who are both active on Facebook (so get adding, you royal hunters).   The annual Queen’s Speech, aired every year on television at 1500 GMTwill be on there, along with her first speech, 50 years ago, in which she said,   "I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct. That it ispossible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us." Things have changed beyond recognition in the half century since then,and the channel aims to move with the times, as well as capture history, including that first speech and plenty of vintage footage that predates Queen Elizabeth.   A spokesman at theQueen’s residence, Buckingham Palace, said that it was hoped that the channel would make her Majesty "more accessible to younger people and those in other countries."

MySpace Starts Doing Video, Properly

Did you know MySpace did video? No, not the low quality clips you can add to your page, but real video, like YouTube. Turns out it does, and this week it’s relaunching the service, all polished up, in a separate site, and with the new name MySpace TV.   It will be open to everyone, not just MySpace members, with an emphasis on professional, rather than user-generated, video (there will be ample ways for MySpace members to bring the videos into their own pages).   MySpace, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., has been playing second fiddle to YouTube, but its video viewing figures have been rising rapidly, according to a study. In April, ComScore that that more than 50 million people in the U.S. watched videos on MySpace, compared to almost 58 million on YouTube. MySpace has 110 million users a month.   MySpace has been in the video market since January 2006, but has only recently become more serious about the venture. It’s the only site where you can watch “minisodes,” five-minute versions of ‘80s sitcoms put out by Sony, and was, very briefly, the exclusive site for Michael Eisner’s Prom Queen web shows.   MySpace TV will use short ads, and hopes to have movies from NBC Universal or Fox (Fox is owned by News Corp.), which are working on Internet programming. One factor that will sharpen MySpace TV’s appeal is its use of filtering software, which can determine if uploaded video is in breach of copyright.   “We haven’t really freshened up our video offering since we launched it,” explained Chris DeWolfe, the CEO and co-founder of MySpace. “We wanted to highlight the fact that we have a video destination on the Web with all this great content that we’ve acquired.”   Like YouTube, MySpace TV will be international, available in 15 countries and seven different languages.The move comes as YouTube is making an initial foray into social networking on its site. The new MySpace TV will link closely to MySpace pages. Each member page will link to a MySpace TV channel, where users can upload videos. Later this year, there will also be a feature, allowing users to mash-up videos into fresh pieces.  

WWW Inventor Gets Rare Honor

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man who gave us the world wide web, has received yet another honor.   The Queen of England has granted Berners-Lee the Order of Merit, one of Britain’s most prestigious awards, generally given for remarkable contributions to the arts or sciences. In 2004 he wasalso named Greatest Briton.   The Order of Merit is restricted to 24 living members, who have the right to use OM after their names, and the award is granted directly by the Queen. Previousrecipients include Sir Winston Churchill and Florence Nightingale. Berners-Lee was inducted with two other members.   Berners-Lee came up with the idea for the World Wide Web in 1991, while anemployee of CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva. He created the hypertext program that allowed users to browse, linkand organize pages on the Internet.   These days he’s the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which as based at MIT. He was given hisknighthood in the honors list at the beginning of 2004.   “Awards such as this are for public service, a service which in this case has been largely carried out by the W3C. All thoseinvolved in Consortium activity should feel recognized by this acknowledgment of the importance of W3C’s work,” said Berners-Lee in a statement.

Eisner Turns to the Internet with Vuguru

Former Disney chief Michael Eisner has apparently set his sights on the Internet, announcing the formation of a new indepenent studio Vuguru with the mission to create and distribute original digital content. Vuguru intends to establish itself as as the leader in high-quality, story-driven content for the Internet which, “up until now,” could only be found in movies and television.

“In the past few years, the development of exciting and innovative digital media platforms and technologies has outpaced the creation of truly great content,” said Michael Eisner. “Vuguru will produce and showcase original and third party content in all genres and formats to meet the new demands of the evolving media landscape.”  Read more...

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